Samuel Adams Cold Snap | Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams)

0 characters.
We love reviews! Turn your rating into one with ≥ 150 characters. Awesome. Thanks for the review!

In English, explain why you're giving this rating. Your review must discuss the beer's attributes (look, smell, taste, feel) and your overall impression in order to indicate that you have legitimately tried the beer. Nonconstructive reviews may be removed without notice and action may be taken on your account.

Notes / Commercial Description:
Stirring from the haze of winter, this refreshing unfiltered White Ale awakens its smooth wheat with the bright snap of spring spices. From the subtle sweetness of orange peel and plum to the peppery bite of fresh ground coriander, the blend of spices creates just the right refreshing kick to signal that spring is on its way.

Pours a murky light orange with a foamy off-white head that settles to wisps of film on top of the beer. Small dots of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of malt, grain, yeast, spice, and fruity aromas. Taste is much the same with fruit and floral flavors on the finish. There is a very mild amount of spice bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty good beer with a nice fruity presence in the aroma and flavor.

a remarkably surprisingly good beer here, winter seasonal, not expected to be anything special, but this is darn good. like a blue moon in some sense, with out the herbal properties and the yeast intensity, i like this a lot. not that hazy, and not that pale, doesnt really look the part, but it has a robust two inches of white head that dont fade a lick. the nose is nice, a little sweet, definitely grain driven, with a light citrus hopping and fresh bread aromatics, breakfast bread. the flavor is similar, heavier wheat malt base is nice, and the leftover sugar really is too. it gives some pleasant body, but the beer stays light due to excellent carbonation. there is almost a lemongrass flavor to it, a somewhat fruity somewhat grassy element i cannot quite place, but it makes this beer stand out from the crowd. i am surprised i liked this as much as i did, a semi-macro-ish seasonal witbier. turns out is exceptional, crossing the boundary between refreshing and hearty, extremely enjoyable really. creamy and flavorful.

A: The beer is very hazy yellow in color and has a light to moderate amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a half finger high white head that died down, leaving a large patch of bubbles in the center of the glass and a dense collar around the edge.
S: Light aromas of plums are present in the nose along with hints of orange peels.
T: Similar to the smell, the taste has flavors of plums and orange peel along with notes of wheat and hints of spices.
M: It feels a bit shy of medium-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This witbier feels a bit heavier in body compared to other beers in the style, so it can be considered appropriate for a winter beer. The plum flavors are definitely unique.

355ml bottle. Given that it's not just been we up here in the Great White North who've had to deal with the eponymous weather conditions these past few months, this is a pithy reminder of hopefully bygone days, at least for another year.

This beer pours a rather cloudy, medium tarnished golden yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, tightly foamy, and eventually creamy dirty white head, which leaves some nice random exploding snow bank lace around the glass as it slowly ebbs away.

It smells of that particular blend of semi-sweet fruity orange flesh and muted coriander spice, lightly bready wheat malt, and further lemon and grassy hop notes. The taste is quite in line with the aroma - the spice and fruit lead things off, as the orange gets a bit musty, and the coriander holds firm - with a visit from some faintly spicy white ginger, a nicely even, lightly toasted caramel and wheat malt, fading lemon pie esters, and mild leafy, grassy hops.

The carbonation is genuinely soft and innocuous, the body a decent middleweight for the style, and unaffectedly smooth, with some ethereal hints of creaminess. It finishes off-dry, the muddled citrus fruitiness and dulled spiciness blending well enough with the lingering bready, wheat grain sweetness.

A decent enough version of a witbier, sort of faded around the edges, but the meat of the matter is still intact. Which is all fine and good, but this is certainly a warm(er) weather offering, so I'm thinking there's something lost in translation here - up here, a 'cold snap' is a prolonged period of sub-zero temps - I'm guessing that BBC assumes a different stress, as in 'a snap to the existing cold' i.e. springtime, y'all.

Aaah, before the grip of cold weather, winter has its grip-its bracing bone chilling rigidness is broken up by the common richness of porters, stouts and barleywines. These beers warm those bones well during the hibernating sense of winter. But then a Cold Snap happens and teases us with the notion that warmer weather is just around the corner.

As the snow starts to melt, Samuel Adams delivers a beer that pours with a golden-amber hue. Bright in its appearance, the ale pours with a vibrantly carbonated demeanor which fuels a stark-white head of arid structure. Long in its retention, the ale laces with certain randomness.

Its aromas are sweet with supple caramel, honey and fruit- its melange is herbal and somewhat of fresh-hung tobacco. Plumb, dates, marmalade, and figs are light in the backdrop, but with the light nutty and steely caramel playing behind, the ale offers as much of an earthy scent as it is zesty.

To taste, the beer's brightness shines. There's just enough sweetness and graininess to give the beer a malty grit to allow its beginnings to jump right out. Yet what follows its the citrusy and spicy underpinnings which breath life into the ale. Finishing with a bready aftetaste, those fruit, floral and spice flavors trail in echoes.

Its light and grainy body is creamy to start but quickly fall apart because of its scrubbing mineral and grain qualities. Crystal-clean in its delivery, that also becomes the beer's problem. It's so clean that it reveals the grain flavor and texture to limit its enjoyment. It also highlights is plaster-like taste and texture to much the same malaise.

Has a crisp clean taste with a heavy clove emphasis and a Belgian feel - mostly from the yeast, though the malt backbone is all-American. Minimal hop profile to style. Smooth, wet, crisp, overcarbonated, and medium-bodied, though refreshing. A bit of citrus peel, some coriander. Wheat. The overt spicing is apt, but it lacks the refined subtle taste of superior beers in the style, as well as the fragile delicate feel of world-class offerings.